No central funds for flood control: Sarkar

Assam Minister for Water Resources Nurjamal Sarkar on Wednesday alleged that the state had not received any funds from the Centre to effectively control floods which had left a trail of destruction during the first wave.

"The state's flood control programmes have been seriously hampered as no funds have come from the Centre", Sarkar told PTI here.

He said considering the nature of destruction it would require a massive amount of nearly Rs 60 crore to provide relief and repair to all the damaged embankments and the state government has no resource of its own to meet that demand.

"Most of the embankment were constructed way back in the sixties and now need urgent repair work but we are at a loss due to lack of funds", the Minister said.

However, some of the minimum works haven been carried out in some worst-affected districts through the state funds on priority basis, he said.

The Minister has denied that the flood toll in the current wave of flood has gone up to 25 as reported in a section of the media.

"Even though the revenue department keeps a note of the figure, I don't think that the toll is as high as 25", he said.